The life of a Trainee Solicitor at Wilkinson Woodward

I am Insha Khan, a Trainee Solicitor at Wilkinson Woodward.

The aim of this blog is to give you an insight into the life of a Trainee Solicitor here at Wilkinson Woodward.

I started my first seat in the Conveyancing team which is the same department that I had worked in since I joined Wilkinson Woodward as a secretary. I believe this was a great way to ease me into the Training Contract as I was familiar with the workload, client interaction and I was working alongside my colleagues that I already knew. My caseload soon started to build and I was taking instruction on residential sales, purchases, re-mortgages and transfers of equity.

A Training Contract is usually a 2 year, on the job training period but I was fortunate enough to be given credit for my time as a secretary “time to count” which allowed my Training Contract to be reduced to 18 months.

After working 9 months in the Conveyancing department, I moved into the Wills and Probate team. At first this was a little daunting as this was an entirely new department and area of law that I was not familiar with. As time went on, I became more and more involved, taking client’s instructions to make a Will, drafting Lasting Powers of Attorney and preparing Probate applications. I would strongly recommend and advise any Trainee Solicitor to get involved in as many work related tasks as you can. I found this very useful from a learning point.

The Training Contract enables you as a trainee to train in different areas of the Law, decide where you would be best suited and more importantly intend on practicing throughout your working life.

I was also required to complete the Professional Skills Course. This is the final, compulsory part of training for all Trainee’s before qualifying as a solicitor. I personally decided to do the course with the University of Law due to good feedback I received from my colleagues that had already completed it. The course was delivered via small group workshops mainly online. In total 12 days of training, consisting of core and elective modules were required to complete the course.

I moved to my last and final seat in July 2023. This was to the Family team, an area of law that I always wanted to try.   It quickly became apparent there were a lot of emotions involved and the nature of client’s instructions were very sensitive.   I attended a lot of client meetings, consisting of divorce instructions, child contact issues, drafting non-molestation orders and TOLATA proceedings.  I also had several opportunities to attend Court with my colleagues which I believe was the best bit. My seat in family was short but I am glad I got to experience this. I am now coming towards the end of this seat and will be qualifying in the next few weeks.

I would recommend that all Trainees have a good support network around them. I was lucky enough to be part of a buddy group which was set up for new Trainees in the event that they needed someone to talk to about work related matters or personal matters. My buddy group met up for lunch every couple of months. I got to speak and interact with the other Trainees but also had the comfort of knowing that we were all on the same journey.

The last and final piece of advice I can give to any future Trainee Solicitors is do not be afraid to ask questions.  Ask as many questions as you need to as it is all a big learning curve. I was very fortunate to work in the various teams I had and felt very comfortable asking the questions I needed no matter how silly they sounded.